GMW Cannon Alpha 2024 review: Lux Diesel - off-road test

Everything is big on the Alpha: it has a big grille, big headlights, big wheel-arch flares, big fixed side steps, and a stack of chrome has been thrown at this ute.

So, just how big is it? Well, at 5445mm long (with a 3350mm wheelbase), 1991mm wide and 1924mm high, it’s 35mm longer (with a 120mm longer wheelbase), 57mm wider and 38mm taller than its standard stablemate, the Cannon, and it’s bigger than most of the current mainstream ute market offerings, and it’s also longer (in body and wheelbase) than the top-selling Ford Ranger and even taller than most Ranger variants, except the Raptor.

The business end of the ute – the tub – is 1500mm long, 1520mm wide (1100mm between the wheel arches), and 500mm deep – so not as big as a Ford Ranger dual-cab’s tub.

The tub liner seems robust, and the tub itself has four sturdy-looking tie-down points, but no power point.

There are a couple of examples of left-over ‘Poer’ branding on the Alpha’s exterior - in China, the Cannon is sold as the Poer, which stands for 'Powerful, Off-road, Enjoyable and Reliable' - but otherwise, this ute’s appearance carries over the conventional looks of the Cannon range, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

This Cannon Alpha has a 2.4-litre turbo four-cylinder diesel engine, which produces 135kW at 3600rpm and 480Nm at 1500-2500rpm.

As mentioned earlier, this engine is a new addition to the Cannon line-up.

This Cannon Alpha has a 2.4-litre turbo four-cylinder diesel engine. (Image: Glen Sullivan)

The Alpha has a nine-speed automatic transmission, a torque-on-demand 4WD system, high- and low-range 4WD gearing, as well as a rear diff lock.

The Alpha is a pleasant surprise on-road. Its long wheelbase helps to give it a settled driving feel on sealed surfaces. 

Steering is light and mostly precise but some floatiness drifts into its action from time to time.

The Alpha has double-wishbone independent coil springs at the front and leaf springs and a live axle at the rear and with that set-up this body-on-frame 4WD rides and handles a tad stiffly and firmly, but if you’ve spent any time in a ute recently you’ll be right.

It’s also satisfactorily refined.

And the same goes for when it's on dirt tracks and gravel roads – with that long wheelbase yielding a controlled and composed driving experience.

But during low-range technical four-wheel driving, however, the Alpha is somewhat compromised because of its size, especially that long wheelbase impacting the ute’s ramp over angle which is a pretty ordinary 19 degrees. Not an insurmountable problem, but you do have to drive with more consideration than you would in a vehicle that has a shorter wheelbase.

Otherwise off-road angles are okay – approach 28.5 degrees and departure 23 – with just a little bit of driver-attitude adjustment needed to negate the impediment of that stretched wheelbase. 

The Alpha has a listed ground clearance of 224mm – it does feel a bit low at times – and a wading depth of 800mm.

But the Alpha does suffer from some of the same driver-assist tech problems as its GWM stablemate, the Tank 500 Hybrid Lux, which I recently tested. However, where the Tank 500’s intrusive and over-reactive driver-assist tech was the source of much frustration on the road but less so off the road, it’s the Alpha’s off-road driver-assist tech, such as its traction control system, which was the worst offender, rather than the on-road driver-assist tech.

The off-road traction control here just seems too intrusive and preemptive. It does work, but it kicks in when it really shouldn’t: either activating in an abrupt, ill-timed fashion when you don't need it or robbing the ute of precious momentum by backing off or cutting out when you actually need it. The system needs to be better calibrated and more precise in its activation.

Otherwise, all the mechanicals are sound and the combination of everything works in a low-key effective manner. 

Low-range gearing and engine braking are decent and the Alpha has a rear diff lock if needed.

The tyres – Giti Xross (Cross) HT71 (265/60R18) SUV tyres – aren’t great for 4WDing; they became quickly gummed up with sticky clay mud and so lost most of their valuable traction-grabbing abilities on slippery rock steps. The good news: you can easily swap those SUV tyres out for a set of decent all-terrains. 

Apart from that, everything else pretty much checks out in a low key but not spectacular way. 

Payload is listed as 878kg and the Alpha is rated to tow 750kg unbraked, and 3500kg braked. 

The Cannon Alpha doesn’t have an ANCAP rating yet because, at time of writing, it hasn’t been tested yet.

As standard, it has seven airbags and a comprehensive suite of driver-assist tech including AEB, adaptive cruise control, tyre pressure monitoring system, front and rear parking sensors, and a 360 degree around-view camera and clear chassis view.